Rameshwar Oraon, a former Congress MP who went on to serve as minister of state for tribal affairs, is completing his second consecutive term as the head of the ST commission. In an interview with Archana Mishra days before his successor is expected to be named, Oraon explains what is wrong with the commission. What is the commission doing about the controversy r
Aditya Verma, secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) which is yet to be recognised by the BCCI, has been batting for a full membership for more than a decade. Since 2005, he has also been fighting for transparency and accountability in the working of the BCCI. It was on his petition that the supreme court directed N Srinivasan to step down as the BCCI chief. Another fallout of
A large majority of Indians report having voted in an election, either in the past year or in the more distant past. Far fewer Indians have engaged in other forms of political participation and only about one in ten have engaged in any of the online forms of political participation tested, said a Pew Research Center survey. Indian men are more likely than women to have attended a
Vyjayanthimala Bali was perhaps the first south Indian actor to become a national star. One of the prominent actors of the golden era of Bollywood, she ruled the film industry for almost two decades, the 1950s-60s. Besides acting, the 83-year-old is a renowned Bharatanatyam danseuse and choreographer. Vyjayanthimala took an active interest in politics and won Lok Sabha polls in 1984 on the
It all started when Balvinder Kumar, a senior civil servant, was suspended twice while serving in Uttar Pradesh almost a decade ago. In the midst of worrisome and sleepless nights, he decided to explore spiritual readings and practices like Transcendental Meditation. The deeper he went into studying philosophy, science and spirituality, his fascination about the mind and its thoughts
Since public memory is woefully short, it may not be common knowledge that general elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously initially – in 1951, 1957, 1962 and 1967. The cycle was broken by the disruption of some state assemblies in 1967, advancing of Lok Sabha elections to 1971 by PM Indira Gandhi and the dismissal of six state assemblies in 1978 by the J
The death of more than 200 tribal children in Palghar this year once again highlights the deep-rooted problem of malnutrition among children, especially the tribal ones. Most tribal children go to ashram schools – residential schools opened in tribal-dominated regions by the state and the ministry of tribal affairs, for providing education and free meals to kids. These schools are sup
In April, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan launched united payment interface (UPI), a payment technology product by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for all retail payment system in the country. UPI is a mobile interface that has a unique ‘push and pull’ feature for receiving and making payments using smartphones, thro
Excerpts from the deputy national security advisor’s speech at CyFy 2016: Digital Asia Scripting the New Governance Order conference organised by Observer Research Foundation on September 30. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are emerging as the engine of growth and prosperity in India. We have gained enormously from the cyber space. At the same tim
A recent Bombay high court judgment has emphasised that the right of women to make motherhood choices – whether or not to get pregnant and stay pregnant – is an inalienable natural right. This has given strength to the demand for changes in the law regulating termination of pregnancy to give more autonomy to women over their bodies. Though pregnancy can be terminated
India’s leading water expert and president of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies, S Janakarajan, wonders why Chennai, a city that receives 1,250 mm rainfall, is called a thirsty city and goes on to explain to Shivani Chaturvedi what went wrong among the southern states that led to a water-war like situation. But, he warns that such a scenario
The time has come for India to announce to the world that India can no longer be transgressed or trespassed with impunity. And there couldn’t have been a more telling way of doing so than by unleashing the special mission operations, with the brilliance and precision of an experienced surgeon’s scalpel, and spread across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. This retaliation to the unprovok
Is the way MCI being run the only problem or the issue is about its rules, regulations and mandate? It was both. There were structural problems in MCI’s composition in that there was an inherent conflict of interest when the regulators were elected from amongst those who they were supposed to regulate. It became an exclusive domain of
The political career of home minister Rajnath Singh’s elder son, Pankaj Singh, has not been free of controversies. It is alleged that his father’s influence has helped him rise through the ranks of BJP. In conversation with Governance Now, Singh talks about dynasty politics, his political ambitions and the prospects of BJP in the upcoming UP assembly elections. &n
Tamil filmmaker GNR Kumaravelan was nominated for Filmfare award for the best Tamil director for his art film Haridas in 2013. The film, based on the story of an autistic child, received several positive reviews. Kumaravelan is the son of filmmaker GN Rangarajan. He made his directorial debut in 2009. Earlier he had worked as assistant director with Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, popularly
For the first time, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have been included by the government in the draft national health policy, 2015. However, efforts to battle this threat remains largely shapeless and lacks monitoring of clinical care. As per recent reports by the ministry of health and family welfare, NCDs contribute to 53 percent of the total disease burden in the country, resulting in 6
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) general secretary Ravi Kumar spoke to Shivani Chaturvedi on the issue of discrimination against dalits in Tamil Nadu. In which parts of Tamil Nadu are dalits facing more discrimination? There are 36,500 temples and mutts under the control of Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR&CE) departme
When Portugal’s former prime minister António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres succeeds Ban Ki-moon as the next UN secretary-general, he will find himself pitted against a host of challenges, particularly reforming the international organisation that was set up way back in 1945. UN’s membership and working systems are from an era that is bygone. It looks ill-suited
The world will observe the fourth universal health coverage day on December 12, urging governments to ensure universal access to quality healthcare without financial hardship. India, a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has a challenging task ahead to universalise its healthcare. In spite of several strides in health services, the country is still reeling under heart
Traffic conditions in Indian cities are among the worst in the world. I thought it was a case of a developing country – till I found that India is very peculiar in this regard. Traffic is as bad if not worse in Yangon, Lima, Kampala and Nairobi. But Delhi and Mumbai face an issue which none of these cities has, that of drivers not following lane rules. I argue that the problem we face is
